UNITED NATIONS, February 23, 2011 Security Council condemns Libya crackdown

The United Nations Security Council further isolated Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi on Tuesday, condemning his regime’s crackdown on anti-government protesters and demanding that violence against civilians end immediately.

A press statement agreed by all 15 members of the U.N.’s most powerful body expressed “grave concern” at the situation in Libya, “deplored the repression against peaceful demonstrators, and expressed deep regret at the deaths of hundreds of civilians.”

The council called for an “immediate end to the violence and for steps to address the legitimate demands of the population, including through national dialogue.”

The council issued the statement after several hours of closed consultations.

It came hours after Mr. Qadhafi vowed in a television address to keep fighting to his “last drop of blood” and urged his supporters to take to the streets, setting the stage for even more deadly violence.

Council members said the Libyan government should “meet its responsibility to protect its population,” act with restraint, and respect human rights and international humanitarian law. They said the Libyan government should hold accountable those people, including government forces, who have attacked civilians.

International human rights monitors and humanitarian agencies should be given immediate access, Council members said. They appealed for humanitarian assistance amid reports of shortages of medical supplies to treat the wounded.

Council members also said Libyan government needed to respect the rights of its citizens to peaceful assembly, free expression and press freedom.

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, among five permanent Council members with veto power, said the statement was “extremely strong” and indicated more action was likely coming.

Mr. Grant said the body would ask for action next week by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. There have been demands that Libya’s seat on the rights council be withdrawn. “No doubt we will be meeting again and reviewing what further measures may be appropriate in the light of events,” Mr. Grant said.

The international community has spoken in “one clear and unified voice” for the bloodshed in Libya to end, said Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo, deputy representative for the U.S., another permanent council member. She said her country hoped for “an immediate end to this unacceptable situation.”

Still, a stronger action would have been a “presidential statement,” which becomes part of the council’s record.

Philippe Bolopion, the U.N. advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said the action was a “positive first step” that nevertheless “falls short of the firm action needed to prevent large-scale atrocities.” He said the body should also impose a travel ban and asset freeze on senior Libyan officials and military commanders found responsible for grave human rights violations.

Libya’s deputy U.N. ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, who has called for Mr. Qadhafi to step down, said the statement was “not strong enough” but still “a good message to the regime in Libya about stopping the bloodshed.”

Mr. Dabbashi and other diplomats at Libya’s U.N. mission are at odds with Ambassador Mohamed Shalgham, who on Tuesday called Mr. Qadhafi “my friend” and said he had been speaking hourly with top government officials appealing for the violence to end.

In signs of waning support for the Libyan strongman inside his own government, the Libyan ambassador to the U.S. has also urged Mr. Qadhafi to step down, and the ambassadors to India and Bangladesh have resigned.

“There’s no other solution,” Ambassador Ali Aujali, Libya’s ambassador in Washington, told The Associated Press. “He should step down and give the chance for the people to make their future.”

The Council issued its statement after meeting several hours of closed consultations, included briefings by Ambassador Shalgam, and U.N. Undersecretary-General B. Lynn Pascoe, who oversees political affairs. “The situation is deteriorating and can get much worse,” Mr. Pascoe told reporters after the briefing.

The U.N. political chief expressed “huge concern” at Mr. Qadhafi’s speech and warned that “asking some people to attack other people, particularly if some of those are peaceful demonstrators, is a very dangerous thing.”

Mr. Qadhafi’s security forces have unleashed the most deadly crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region. The eruption of turmoil in the capital of Tripoli has especially escalated the challenge to Mr. Qadhafi’s 40-year rule.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he spoke to Mr. Qadhafi on Monday for 40 minutes and “forcefully urged him to stop violence against demonstrators and again strongly underlined the importance of respecting the human rights of those demonstrators.”

On Tuesday, the U.N. chief discussed the Libyan situation with the emir of Qatar. U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said they agreed on the need for Arab leaders and the U.N. to call for an immediate end to the violence, and for the launch of a broad-based dialogue.

Mr. Ban has expressed outrage at what he described as “very disturbing and shocking scenes” of Libyan authorities firing at demonstrators from warplanes and helicopters.

No longer a man the West can do deals with

With his flawless English, his expensive Italian suits and his place at the London School of Economics (LSE), Seif al-Islam el-Qadhafi appeared to be a man with whom the West could do business: a man who could smooth access to his country's vast mineral resources while avoiding the need to deal with his famously capricious father.

As State security forces were reported to be firing relentlessly into crowds of civilian protesters on February 21, and with Qadhafi Jr appearing on television to threaten a civil war in which the regime “will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet,” many of his erstwhile associates were questioning their friendships with him.

The LSE was quick to distance itself from Seif on February 21, issuing a statement in which it said the university had had a number of links with Libya, but that “in view of the highly distressing news from Libya over the weekend of February 19-20, the school has reconsidered those links as a matter of urgency”.

Although the LSE had accepted £1.5m from the Qadhafi International Charity and Development Foundation, an organisation headed by Seif — some of which was to finance “a virtual democracy centre” — the university stressed that it was to be paid over five years, and only £3,00,000 has been received to date. “In current difficult circumstances across the region, the school has decided to stop new activities under that programme,” the statement said. The LSE has also received scholarship funding in return for advice given to the Libyan Investment Authority in London. “No further receipts are anticipated,” the university said.

Reactions

Professor David Held, an academic advisor to Seif Qadhafi during his four years at the LSE, said: “Watching Seif give that speech — looking so exhausted, nervous and, frankly, terrible — was the stuff of Shakespeare and of Freud: a young man torn by a struggle between loyalty to his father and his family, and the beliefs he had come to hold for reform, democracy and the rule of law. The man giving that speech wasn't the Seif I had got to know well over those years.” The university's move to break its financial links to the regime in Tripoli did nothing to silence criticism, however. Raheem Kassam, director of the anti-radicalisation group Student Rights, said: “LSE has the most market-driven fund-raising model there is in the U.K. Has that model reduced them into a simple gun for hire?” An explanation for Qadhafi's arrival at the LSE in 2002 may be found in one of the WikiLeaks cables, in which a U.S. diplomat notes that “creating the appearance of useful employment for al-Qadhafi's offspring has been an important objective for the regime”.

Shortly before he arrived, apparently with the blessing of the late Fred Halliday, professor of international relations, he startled some of the academic staff by insisting that it was his father, and not Anthony Giddens, emeritus professor at the university, who created the concept of the third way, then a pet philosophy of Tony Blair.

In the introduction to his doctoral dissertation on global governance, published in 2008, Qadhafi wrote: “I shall be primarily concerned with what I argue is the central failing of the current system of global governance in the new global environment: that it is highly undemocratic.” The purpose of his dissertation, he added, was to analyse “how to create more just and democratic global governing institutions,” focussing on the importance of the role of “civil society.”

Approached MI6

Six months after arriving in the U.K., and with U.S.-led forces about to invade Iraq, he is said to have approached MI6 to inform the agency that his father's regime was prepared to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. The contact led to negotiations between Libya, Britain and the U.S. which saw the programme dismantled, and the Qadhafi regime begin to be allowed in from the cold.

While studying for his PhD, Seif enjoyed a life of considerable luxury in one of London's wealthiest and most prestigious suburbs. In August 2009 Qadhafi bought his son a £10m house in north London. Inside the neo-Georgian eight—bedroom mansion, Seif could relax in his own swimming pool sauna room, whirlpool bath and suede-lined cinema room.

On February 21, the entourage of blacked-out cars parked on Seif's driveway had disappeared and there was less need for the forest of CCTV cameras or the private security team who had been on hand to protect him at all times.

Lockerbie

During his time in London Qadhafi mixed socially with Lord Mandelson and the financier Nathaniel Rothschild, and was said to be on friendly terms with the Duke of York. He played a leading role in talks that led to the 2009 release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in which 270 people died. While flying Megrahi home to Libya on a private jet, Qadhafi Jr gave a television interview in which he said the release had been linked to lucrative business deals.

Mandelson later insisted any suggestion that the British government had struck a deal and then instructed the Scottish government to release Megrahi was wrong, implausible “and actually quite offensive.”

A review of documentation relating to the release conducted by the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, reported earlier this month that the British government had been anxious to avoiding harming the country's commercial interests, and that there would be “severe ramifications for U.K. interests” if Megrahi was to die in prison.—

Disturbing reports, says U.S.

Share  ·   print   ·   T+  

AP Protesters hold signs denouncing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during a rally at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, on Sunday.

The United States is “gravely concerned” by “disturbing reports and images coming out of Libya", according to a statement issued over the weekend by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.

In remarks to media posted on Sunday, Mr. Crowley said the State Department was working to ascertain the facts, but had received multiple credible reports that "hundreds" of people had been killed and injured in the recent period of unrest in Libya.

While admitting that the full extent of the death toll was as yet unknown due to the lack of access of international media and human rights organisations, U.S. diplomats had raised to a number of Libyan officials, including Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa, “our strong objections to the use of lethal force against peaceful demonstrators", according to an official.

The comments regarding developments in Libya follow growing concern in the U.S. surrounding protests across the Middle East, beginning in Tunisia and Egypt and more recently spreading to Bahrain and Libya.

Both President Barack Obama and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon had respectively reiterated their condemnation of the "violence used against peaceful protesters", to the King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa of Bahrain.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Donilon were said to have “strongly urged the government of Bahrain to show restraint, and to hold those responsible for the violence accountable.”

Similarly, in an interview this weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. had been “very clear from the beginning that we do not want to see any violence", describing the action against protestors in Bahrain as deplorable and "absolutely unacceptable".

While pressing Bahrain to return, as quickly as possible, to the reform that it had started, Ms. Clinton also cautioned that the U.S. was keen to see the human rights of the people protected, including right to assemble and the right to freedom of expression.

Rights group estimates 84 killed in Libya protests

AP A demonstrator holds a sign with the pictures of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi during a demonstration. File photo

Libyan security forces have been waging an escalated crackdown on the wave of anti-government protests concentrated in the impoverished east of the country.

A New York-based human rights organization estimates that 84 people have died after three days of anti-government protests in Libya.

Libyan security forces have been waging an escalated crackdown on the wave of anti—government protests concentrated in the impoverished east of the country.

In a statement late Friday, Human Rights Watch based its estimate on interviews with hospital staff and witnesses.

Arbor Networks, a Chelmsford, Massachusetts—based security company, also reported that Internet traffic in the North African country abruptly ended at around midnight GMT on Saturday.

Protesters are calling for the ouster of Moammar Gaddhafi, the ruler for the last 42 years. Police have responded to the protests with live ammunition, according to witnesses and medical officials.

Renewed protests turn violent

Renewed protests turned violent across Libya on Friday, with opposition activists saying dozens were shot dead during funerals and marches for those killed in anti-government demonstrations earlier this week.

The protests against the rule of Moamer Gaddafi had spread to the capital Tripoli by late Friday night. Witnesses reported people taking to the streets in a number of western neighbourhoods.

Sources from north-eastern city of Benghazi told the German Press Agency dpa that 25 protesters were killed there Friday. There was no independent or official confirmation.

Residents of Benghazi also reported that police there had been replaced with military troops.

Two more protesters were shot dead in the northern city of Qubah, the opposition National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL) said on Friday.

Call for Gaddafi's ouster

Emboldened by revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, thousands of Libyans are calling for the ouster of Gaddafi, who has been in power for 41 years.

“We do not want Gaddafi’s compromises and his son’s bribes. We want them out. We are demonstrating peacefully,” one Libyan activist wrote on the social-networking site Twitter, which has emerged as one of the rallying tools of all the Middle East protests.

The opposition group NFSL said the al-Jdaida prison in Tajoora, also on the north coast, was burnt and prisoners had been released.

It was not immediately clear how the fire broke out.

There were also unconfirmed reports that prisoners in a jail in Benghazi and in other northern cities had escaped, according to Libyan websites.

Western part of country quiet

While most of the clashes and unrest took place in the northeast of the country, Libyan sources said the western part of the country was quiet.

Opposition groups claimed that by Thursday night, 45 people were killed, while the New York-based activist group Human Rights Watch estimated that 24 people had died in clashes with security forces.

The Quryna newspaper, which has close ties to Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, reported that 14 people were killed in Benghazi on Thursday, after police used live ammunition against protesters during several days of protests.

Meanwhile, the Libyan opposition accused authorities of providing more arms to the elite army brigade Khamees Gaddafi, named after one of the sons of the Libyan leader.

The opposition website Libya Al-Youm said that the brigade had attacked protesters in the north, a move it alleged had left up to 30 people dead.

Earlier reports had said that mercenaries from other African countries, including Chad, were also being recruited to attack protesters.

Libya Al-Youm said that helicopters landed briefly to provide the brigade with weapons in the coastal cities of Bayda and Shahhat.

Three of its soldiers were killed in the clashes, according to the online report.

"People being armed to attack protesters"

Human Rights Watch also accused Libyan authorities of arming people to attack protesters and sending out text messages that call upon “nationalist youths” to go out and “defend national symbols.” “Using security forces and armed thugs to deny people the right to express their opposition to the government increasingly looks destined to fail,” the group noted.

State television, meanwhile, broadcast a Muslim preacher warning people against chaos and blaming ongoing pro-democracy protests in the country on Israeli interference.

“Adhere to the security of your country,” the preacher said in the Friday sermon, warning Libyans to “beware of Zionist conspiracy theories” against their country.

For his part, Mr. Gaddafi attended a pro-government rally in the capital Tripoli, state television reported.

One of his sons, al-Saadi - who has played football for several Italian clubs - is now to be sent to Benghazi to help implement an “unprecedented development plan,” the Al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday. 

February 19, 2011

Anti-government site says 4 killed in Libyan clash

AP Map locates Benghazi in Libya, where anti-government have been reported. An anti-govt. website has said that four protesters in the city of Beyida have been killed by security forces.

A website opposing long-time Libyan dictator Mommar Gadhafi says four protesters in the city of Beyida have been killed by government forces.

Activists using Facebook and Twitter have called for nationwide anti-government demonstrations on Thursday.

So far, protests have been reported on Wednesday and Thursday in Beyida and to the west in Libya’s second-largest city, Benghazi.

Opposition website Libya Al-Youm says the protesters were slain by snipers from the Internal Security Forces. It’s not clear when the protesters were killed.

The Libyan government maintains tight control over the media and the reports couldn’t be independently confirmed.

The opposition is hoping to tap into unrest in the region that has ousted leaders in Tunisia and Egypt.

NATO to head the command and control of Libyan operation

Overcoming deep differences among its 28-member nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has agreed to take the lead role in enforcing the ‘no-fly’ zone over Libya as per the mandate of the UN Security Council resolution.

“NATO has now decided to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya. We are taking action as part of the broad international effort to protect the civilians against the attacks by the Qaddafi regime. We will cooperate closely with our partners in the region and we welcome their contributions,” said NATO Secretary General, Andres Fogh Rasmussen.

He said all NATO allies are committed to fulfill their commitments under the U.N. Resolution, and that’s why “we have decided to assume responsibility for the no-fly zone“.

However, no decision has been made whether NATO should take on that broader responsibility, he quickly pointed out in an interview to CNN soon after an announcement in this regard was made at the NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“What we have decided today is to take responsibility for the no-fly zone with the aim to protect civilians by closing the air space for all flights, except aid flights, all with the aim to protect civilians. Of course, we can act in self defence. We have not decided yet whether we will take on the broader responsibility,” he said.

This means that right at this moment you will have two operations. We have taken on responsibility for the no-fly zone, while the coalition still continues its activities. We are considering whether we should take on that broader responsibility. However, that decision has not been made yet, he added.

The necessary change in the current command and control over the Libyan military operation will be done over the next couple of days, Mr. Rasmussen said, adding that it will use the already established NATO chain of command for this.

“We will use the already established NATO framework, which means that it is a NATO supreme commander who will be the overall responsible,” he said.

The current NATO commander is an American.

“We will include contributing partners from the region. It’s of utmost importance to stress that this is not primarily a NATO operation. It is a broad international effort in which we will include partners from the region that have pledged to contribute to this protection of civilians in Libya,” the top NATO official said.

Mr. Rasmussen, however, refuted reports that there have been differences among the 28-member alliance on the Libyan operation.

“There is no split. On the contrary, there is a unity within NATO. We have decided, all 28 allies, that we will take on the responsibility for the no-fly zone. We are, right now, considering whether we should take on the broader responsibility within the U.N. Security Council resolution,” he said.

He said it will take place a part of that broad international effort to protect civilians.

Earlier in a statement in Brussels, Mr. Rasmussen said: “We are taking action as part of the broad international effort to protect civilians against the attacks by the Qaddafi regime. We will cooperate with our partners in the region and welcome their contributions.”

“All NATO Allies are committed to fulfill their obligations under the U.N. resolution. That is why we have decided to assume responsibility for the no-fly zone,” he said.